


Home Is Wherever I'm With You: Mika and Arra

by roxypony



Series: Home Is Wherever I'm With You [1]
Category: Cirque du Freak | The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan
Genre: ? - Freeform, Angst, F/M, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, i don't know how tagging works on this website, tales from vampire mountain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:14:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24813637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxypony/pseuds/roxypony
Summary: Companion to This Is Us and Call It What You Want but can be read independently from that. A collection of flashbacks from Vampire Mountain and beyond. Mainly Mika and Kurda-centric with a good amount of Arra and Arrow presence as well.
Relationships: Mika Ver Leth/Arra Sails, Mika Ver Leth/Kurda Smahlt, Mika/Arrow friendship
Series: Home Is Wherever I'm With You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794823
Kudos: 1





	Home Is Wherever I'm With You: Mika and Arra

**Author's Note:**

> Hey hey :)
> 
> As I've been writing my way through This Is Us and more recently Call It What You Want, I keep having these ideas for flashback scenes to expand on the characters' histories with each other (at least according to my personal canon) but they always end up way longer than they need to be so I decided to start a new 'story' to stash them all. Because they can pretty much be consumed independently of the other fics.
> 
> So if you've read those stories, cool you're all set.
> 
> If you haven't, you don't need to. But the context makes more sense when you do. This particular one can be read in anywhere after chapter 8 of Call It What You Want.
> 
> Home Is Wherever I'm With You: Flashback 1
> 
> Mika & Arra

Mika has always held a special place in Arra's life, a place no one else could fill. He was her mentor, but he was hardly older than she was so he felt more like a brother who doubled as a best friend. She found him charming in his own unique way. He was stubborn, fearless, and clever - with an attitude the size of Vampire Mountain. But most importantly, he was good. In a world that wasn't always kind to women, Mika respected her and took her seriously. She fondly remembered the time some General made a sexist joke in front of her and a few others. Arra felt frozen. Her older self would've made the man eat his words, but she was much younger back then. All the men laughed raucously as she turned red, but Mika said with a completely straight face:

"I'm sorry, I don't understand the joke. Could you please explain what part is supposed to be funny?"

The General stuttered out a lame half-hearted explanation why it was supposed to be funny, and laughter died pretty quick after that. Mika kept insisting he didn't get it, until the crowd dispersed uncomfortably. And in case you were wondering, Mika most definitely "got" the joke the first time around. He could've punched the man in the face but it was much more satisfying to watch him embarrass himself.

It started when a journey to Vampire Mountain went terribly awry. Quite a few decades ago now, Mika and Arra were en route to the Festival of the Undead. It was Arra's second one and she was terribly excited. She'd been a young cub the first time she attended a Festival and had felt awkward and out of place among the crowd of brawling men. Twelve years later, she had a newfound fire in her soul and the confidence to go with it. She had a bigger circle of friends and acquaintances this time around, and had been steadily perfecting her fighting skills until she could hold her own against men twice her size. Mika was just as eager to get to the mountain, he'd been nominated to be a General after years of work. He was ready to accept his new title and the responsibilities that came with it.

When they were about 100 miles from the mountain, they happened across a ravine. It was wide, it was deep, and it was snowing.

"We can jump it." Said Arra briskly. "Let's go, we can take a running start."

"Are you out of your mind?" Mika replied calmly. "We can't clear that. We have to go around."

"Which way, huh?" Arra shot back, tapping her foot impatiently. "We have no idea how far this goes. It could be miles in either direction!"

"Then we walk for miles in either direction." Mika shrugged unconcernedly. He wanted to get to the mountain just as badly as she did, but he was slightly more disciplined at this point in his life. Just a few years ago, his response probably would've been: "Hell yeah, let's jump that motherfucker."

"We could've made it there by the end of the night!" Arra groaned in frustration. "Going around could take days!"

"Then it takes days." Mika sighed in exasperation. "We'll still make it for the start of the festival, probably."

"Probably?!" Arra yelped. "Why don't we climb down this side and up the other? That should work!"

"Look at how these rocks are splitting. We'd get sliced to pieces. How would you hold a mug of ale with two bandaged hands?"

"It's worth a try!"

"We're going around." Said Mika. "That's the end of it. I want to be in one piece to enjoy the Festival. End of discussion."

He was using The Tone. See, Mika's voice gets this unmistakeable edge to it when he's really, seriously DONE talking about something. He never needed to raise his voice. There was just something about it that could stop any vampire in their tracks if he wanted them to. But unfortunately for him, The Tone was one of the traits Arra had picked up from him. So not only was she not afraid of his, she had her own. And gods forbid they both used theirs at the same time.

"I'm getting to Vampire Mountain tonight. With or without you." She informed him icily. "Maybe YOU don't think you can make it across, but I KNOW I can."

Those could have easily been her famous last words. She took a running start, and Mika desperately tried to grab her arm as she flew past him but he wasn't quick enough, and she leaped. She was in the air for maybe half a second at most but it felt like forever to Mika who could only watch helplessly as she almost disappeared into the driving snow. He could see just well enough to watch the moment her feet touched down on the edge of the other side. But she hadn't considered the ice, and the slope. She didn't even have time to register that she'd made it across, because suddenly she was falling. Her mind blacked out any memories of the impact, but not what came next.

For a moment, Arra didn't remember why she was lying in the snow. It was very cold. The first thing she registered was the fact that her ears were ringing. So loudly it took a minute realize that Mika was on his knees beside her. He was in panic, she could tell he was yelling but she couldn't hear him.

"Mika, what's wrong?" She murmured drowsily. She reached out to touch his arm, to try to calm him down. Then she noticed her hand was covered in blood. She looked at it thoughtfully, turning it over in confusion. "What happened?"

She could see Mika's face staring back at her, but her vision was blurring and the relentless snow wasn't helping. His lips were moving frantically but she still couldn't understand what he was saying. Mika was so skilled at maintaining a calm facade even at the worst of times; so his current behaviour was rather concerning.

"I can't hear you." She whimpered. "What's happening?"

Then she looked at her legs. Both were bent at horrifying angles, and the snow around her was stained red.

Oh. She remembered thinking, as the gravity of the situation dawned on her. That's why Mika's losing his shit. We're trapped at the bottom of a ravine and I have two broken legs. Makes perfect sense.

She got one second to process all of that before the adrenaline stopped flowing and the pain hit her. And it wasn't just her legs, her entire body was in excruciating pain. She tried to be brave, tough, honourable. Everything a great vampire should be. But it was all too much - she didn't want to die here. There was so much left she wanted to do. She lay in Mika's arms sobbing helplessly as he wrapped his coat around her in an effort to keep her warm and prevent her from going into shock. She could hear him again.

"It's okay, Arra. I'm going to get you out of here. You're going to be fine."

His voice was shaking. She'd never heard him like this before.

"I don't want to die here!" She cried, hating how weak her voice sounded. There was nothing noble about this. This wasn't how her story was supposed to end.

"Nobody's dying. I'm going to get you out of here. I'll find a way, Arra. I swear."

Her head was cushioned against his chest and she could hear his heartbeat hammering against her eardrum. He kept talking, telling her everything was going to be fine, begging her to stay awake, to stay with him. She tried, but within minutes she had blacked out again.

When she came to, they were back on top of the ravine, on the other side. She realized she must've been out for a while because they were no longer alone. At first she was sure she was hallucinating but Arrow and Vancha had joined them. After a few more moments it dawned on her that she wasn't as cold as she'd been; she was now swaddled in one of Vancha's fur capes. Vancha was kneeling next to her, looking concernedly at her mangled legs. She saw Mika, on the ground leaning against a tree several feet away. Even in the blowing snow she could see his face was bleeding and he looked distraught. Arrow was crouched in front of him - she couldn't see Arrow's face but she could hear him talking to Mika in a low, soothing voice. Mika just kept shaking his head at him.

"Mika?" She croaked. "Are you okay?" Her body felt like it had been run over by a train, she had to fight to be heard over the wind.

"Oi! She's back!" Came Vancha's booming voice from above.

"Arra!" Mika gasped. Arrow had to help him to his feet but he was able to stand up and limp over to her. "It's okay, everything's going to be okay. Look, Arrow and Vancha are here. I called them and they flitted to us as soon as they could. You're going to be fine."

"I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I was so stupid... all my fault. I thought I could make it across-"

"You did make it." Mika insisted, his voice cracking. "I was wrong. You made it all the way, you just slipped on the ice. It wasn't your fault."

"I should have listened to you."

"You'll know for next time." Mika replied gently. "For now, we need to get you to Vampire Mountain. Seba will set your legs and take care of you. Vancha will flit you there. Just close your eyes for a minute, and when you open them you'll be warm and safe."

"What about you?"

"I can't flit right now, Arra. I'm sorry. I broke my ankle when I climbed down to you." Mika explained reluctantly. He almost had to shout as the blizzard howled around them. Arra's vision started to blur again and she instinctively reached for his hand and gripped it tightly. She tried to speak but her mind seemed to have disconnected from her lips. No sound came out. Mika held her hand tightly for another minute then let go.

"Get her out of here, Vancha." Came Mika's voice, strained but steady. Vancha lifted her off the ground - he moved as gently as he possibly could but every nerve of her body screamed in protest.

"You sure you'll be alright, Ver Leth? You'd better find shelter quick. This is getting bad." Said Vancha, shaking snow out of his eyes as he prepared to take off.

"I'll be fine, get out of here!"

The world was fading around her but she didn't miss the fact that Mika had just used The Tone. Vancha nodded at him and turned away.

"Hang on, Sails. This will be a quick ride but it won't be fun." the green-haired man muttered ruefully. She looked over his shoulder at Mika one last time, not fully absorbing why he was still sitting on the ground rather than following them. She tried to call out to him, but suddenly the snowscape dissolved into blackness and she knew nothing more.

When she woke up again, she was still in a good deal of pain, but this time she was warm. She realized she was in a bed, in a large torch-lit room with stone walls. It took a moment to remember what happened, and she quickly sat up as the memory hit her. The impossibly stupid impulse to try to leap over that ravine... what the hell was I thinking? She groaned internally.

"Good evening, my dear!" Came a soft voice to her left. There was an elderly-looking man sitting next to her. He was clad in a dashing crimson cape and smiling serenely at her. She'd only met him once before.

"Seba?" She ventured, dismayed at how weak her voice sounded.

"Yes, indeed. I am glad to see you are alert!" Said Seba, gently pressing his fingertips to her forehead. "How do you feel, Arra?"

"Pretty fucking terrible." She croaked out, and immediately regretted her choice of words. "Sorry, Sir. I didn't-"

But Seba was laughing away mirthfully, he held up a hand to halt her apology.

"You are Mika Ver Leth's student, that is certain!"

Oh gods. Mika.

"Where's Mika?" She gasped, suddenly remembering the how Vancha had whisked her away. Seba's face clouded and her heart sank.

"Mika is still on route back from the mountain. He sustained some injuries while getting you out of the ravine, that is why he was not able to flit with you. Nothing serious but one simply cannot flit with a broken ankle. At least he is not alone. Arrow is with him."

That only made her feel slightly better. It was all her fault, if she'd just listened to him they'd both be here right now. Now he was probably out trudging through the snow on a broken ankle because of her.

"Mika wouldn't want you to blame yourself." Said Seba quietly as though reading her mind.

"He told me not to jump. He tried to stop me." Arra murmured. "I should still be stuck out there, not him."

Seba reached out and took her bandaged hand in his, and gave it the softest squeeze.

"He will be here soon. And I promise you, he will not be angry. All he wanted was for you to get here safely, and you did. I have set the bones in your legs, you will be up and walking before you know it. In the meantime, rest. I must go help prepare for the Festival but I will come visit you later."

So Seba left her alone with her thoughts for several excruciating hours. Luckily, a brief distraction appeared in the form of Vancha March.

"Hey, Sails! Looking good!" He greeted her with a cheeky grin.

Arra grimaced.

"Why do I feel like you're lying?"

"Fine, you have a pretty impressive black eye, and half your face is swollen. And we won't talk about your legs. But you're alive, so I think that's cause for celebration!" He hooted, passing her one of the two mugs of ale he was carrying. "Cheers to the final evening before the festival begins!"

She reluctantly clinked her mug against his and took a swig, but she hardly felt like celebrating.

"How'd you all get me out of the ravine?" She asked him seriously after draining her mug. "I was passed out for that part. I was sure I was going to die down there."

"We didn't get you out." Said Vancha, looking down into his mug thoughtfully. "Mika did it on his own. Arrow and I didn't show up til after. We only arrived minutes before you woke up again."

"What?" Arra yelped. "How the hell did he manage that? There's no way he could've carried me and climbed at the same time."

"Ver Leth's one clever bastard." Said Vancha reverently. "He looped your arms around his neck, tied them together with his belt, and climbed all the way up with you dangling there like a backpack. I don't know how he thought of it, but you'd both still be down there otherwise. Oh, that reminds me. He said your wrists would probably be pretty bruised from it - he wanted me to tell you he was sorry."

Arra glanced down at her forearms - sure enough. But she had to laugh drily at the absurdity of that. Here she was with two broken legs and countless other lacerations as a direct result of her own thoughtlessness. And Mika was somewhere in the wilderness feeling guilty over leaving a temporary mark while saving her life at the expense of his own body.

"I'll try to find it in my heart to forgive him." She informed Vancha flatly. He chuckled happily, always one to appreciate sarcasm.

"He'll be fine, by the way." Vancha added kindly. "He got cut up pretty bad on the rocks from all the climbing, and he broke his ankle and hit his head somewhere along the line. But he's survived worse! We all have. Plus he's got Arrow for company."

Arra said nothing. She stared down silently at her bandaged hands, still wracked by guilt.

"They're not far away, really." Vancha added encouragingly. "If I know Arrow, he'll carry Mika the rest of the way if it means making it in time for opening ceremonies."

And it was no more than two hours between Vancha speaking those words, and them proving him correct. Arra had dozed off, but Vancha was still sitting next to her when they arrived and his shout of glee jarred her awake. Mika was limping along determinedly, leaning on Arrow as a crutch. Arrow was very pale and looked almost worse than Mika at that point. The pair of them stopped at Arra's bed. Mika sat down next to her and gave her a quick hug. They didn't exchange words at first. She just buried her face against his shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. It was in that moment she realized she didn't recall ever hugging him before. If they did touch each other, it was always gestures like high fives and fist bumps and rough pats on the back.

"Thank the gods you're here." She croaked.

"He's fuckin' heavier than he looks." Arrow gasped, pointing at Mika. Then he promptly flung himself into an empty cot and closed his eyes.

"Did he flit you here? I called it!" Vancha cackled.

"Yes." Mika grimaced. "He carried me like a baby. Could only flit a little at a time, but it was still faster than walking."

Even though he looks it when standing next to Arrow, Mika is not a small man. Flitting is hard on a vampire's body even when they aren't toting cargo. Arrow was asleep inside a minute.

"Told ya, Sails! No way these two rascals would miss opening night." Said Vancha with a twinkle in his eye. "I'd better go see if Seba needs help getting things ready to go. See you soon!"

Mika grabbed the green-haired man's arm as he got up.

"Thanks, Vancha." He said seriously. "I owe you one."

"Put in a good word for me when you get promoted to General and we'll call it even. Glad you're both in one piece!" Vancha replied merrily, patting Mika's back before making his exit. That left Mika and Arra, propped up side-by-side on the small bed. Arrow was still there, but was slumbering so deeply he didn't really count. Mika leaned back against the headboard beside her and slid his arm behind her shoulders to provide a cushion before her mangled body and the hard surface. He was still shivering.

"Fuck, Mika... when I woke up and realized you didn't come back with us... that didn't feel great." she whispered, suddenly unable to meet his eyes.

He exhaled a low, humourless ghost of a laugh.

"Sorry but I win the pity game this time. Hands down. It took me forever to climb down to you. One wrong move and we'd both be dead. I didn't even know if you were still alive until I finally got down there. I thought I was losing you. So my day was worse."

She felt one solitary tear slip quietly from her eye and trail slowly down her cheek. She didn't know if he noticed but he did hug her a little tighter.

"It's okay, Mika. You can say it." She murmured eventually.

"Say what?"

""I told you so.""

He laughed again but it sounded truer this time.

"We were both right. You thought you could make the jump and you did - just slipped on the ice. And I thought it was a bad plan, and it was." He reasoned with a tired smile.

Arra was ready to change the subject.

"Those are for you." Arra informed Mika balefully, pointing at the old wooden crutches that was leaning against the wall next to her bed. "Seba dropped by earlier. He said you should put your ankle up for a day but he knows you won't, so he left them there."

"That was considerate of him. How are you feeling?" Mika asked, running his eyes over her bruised face and down to her splinted legs. There was a look of deep worry on his face that she'd never seen before.

"I'm feeling like it's going to be a long time til I can challenge someone on the bars." She replied bitterly. Mika chuckled softly.

"This is your first broken bone since you've been blooded, right?"

Arra nodded.

"You'll be back on your feet before you know it. Trust me. Soon, you'll forget this ever happened. It's just too bad you broke both, otherwise you could hobble around with one of my crutches."

"It's fine. I don't care about the Festival anymore." She whispered, hating how her voice was trembling. Mika took her hand in his.

"Me neither. That really was the worst day of my life, Arra. Bar none."

"Looks like you're stuck with me for a bit longer."

There was so much more Arra wanted to say in that moment, but she was already drained and it was clear that Mika was too. Within minutes he'd fallen asleep with his head on her shoulder.

It wasn't the Festival experience Arra had been looking forwards to, but it wasn't completely horrible either. Vancha came back a few hours later with a wooden trolley with wheels. He'd found it in an old storage room.

"So you're going to tow me around the Festival of the Undead like a child in a wagon?" Said Arra incredulously. She didn't know if it was brilliant or insane. She settled on both.

"Your other option is laying in this bed and talking to yourself." Mika shrugged with half a smile. "It's not Vancha's worst idea."

Mika received his official promotion to General on the first night of the festival, and he was truly in his element. Arra couldn't have been happier for him. There was no one more deserving of some recognition. He was the most stoic person she knew, but she would never forget how his eyes shone as it all became official. Even bruised and propped up on crutches, he looked so proud. Arra tried not to think about how close he came to not being there for that moment. But fortunately she had plenty of distractions the next three days.

Even riding around in a wagon, Arra enjoyed her second Festival much more than her first. Arrow and Vancha took turns towing her while Mika hobbled along on his crutches beside her. Arrow grabbed a barrel of ale and set it in the wagon next to her so they could refill their mugs on the fly. She became an instant icon - Arra Sails, the vampiress who wouldn't let two broken legs keep her from having a grand time at the Festival of the Undead. She couldn't fight like she wanted to, but she spent several hours parked by the bars learning everything she could. She made many new friends, and greeted others she hadn't seen in years. Including Larten Crepsley, an orange-haired vampire who always had a funny expression on his face when he talked to her. It was a wonderful time and she felt so fortunate to just be there. It was as if the universe had humbled her. The vampire gods themselves may as well have materialized in front of her and said,

"You still get to enjoy this, but first we're breaking your legs so you remember to use your brain next time you're about to do something reckless."

Fair enough, she thought to herself.

She told Mika many times over the years that she really owed him one, but she wished he hadn't taken it so damn literally.

The night many decades later, when she fought tooth and nail to drive off no less than five mad vampires, all she could think of was how Mika must've felt as he descended the unforgiving rock wall after she'd fallen. Tearing his body to pieces on the razor-sharp cliff while not knowing what he was going to find at the bottom.

She'd chased off the crazed assailants with the help of three Generals and six cubs and even their combined efforts were barely enough. All she knew at that point was that Mika was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. She didn't even have time to check to see if he was still breathing. It was only after the last enemy had fled into the darkness that she was able to fall to her knees at his side and desperately search for a pulse. The moment she found it was indescribable. But he was in a bad way. And the rest of the group was useless, stunned and petrified at the prospect of one of their Princes bleeding out and dying at their feet. Arra ripped her sleeve and used it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. It was crude but it got the job done. It was also her idea to move him to an abandoned house they'd noticed the previous day. It was furnished, but looked like it hadn't been occupied in at least a year. It was the perfect place to recover. The group rested there for a day, then Arra told them to carry on the plan Mika had laid out before all this happened. She knew any of the three present Generals could've been the ones giving the orders, but they were too shaken to string together any coherent ideas. And not only had Arra started out as Mika's own apprentice, she was a force to be reckoned with even without his influence. When she talked, people listened. So away the group went, leaving the two of them alone in the empty house.

There would always be three separate moments from that week which would stay with her the rest of her life. The first was the elation she felt when he opened his eyes two days later. The second was the absolute devastation that followed when it became clear Mika had no idea where he was, what happened, and worst of all... who Arra was. He was hurt, terrified, and had no interest in being helped by her. Had he been physically capable, he would have ran off and probably never been seen again. His brain was completely scrambled. But the third moment came four days after the fight. Mika was sleeping deeply enough that Arra thought maybe she could finally splint his shattered forearm. She worked as gently as she could. When his eyes drifted open she cringed, expecting him to wrench the limb away from her. But this time, he didn't flinch. He just gazed up at her, whispered her name, and she realized he was back. For the umpteenth time, she refreshed his memory on the events that led up to this but this time it stuck. He was in agony but he trusted her completely and lay still until she was able to patch him up to the best of her abilities.

"I think we're even now." She told him in a voice barely above a whisper when she finished. He exhaled a soft breath of laughter, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

When she was promoted to General, all she could think of was the night almost 30 years ago when Mika had first been nominated to be a Prince. It was the same night he first confessed he had feelings for her.

"You know I can't go there with you now." She told Mika gently as the smile faded from his face. "You know what they'll say about me if we get together as you're being invested. They'll think I'm using you. Maybe we can try when I make General."

She was living in a man's world. And she knew in her heart that meant she couldn't have it both ways. He was devastated but he understood. He knew the unfair double standard she was up against. So he supported her quietly for the next two decades because it was all he could do. Few things surprised Arra, especially things that concerned Mika. Their minds worked the same way. They were both all business with big attitudes and bigger egos - who'd mastered the art of of wearing it in a way that came across as humble and hardworking. Because they were, they just also happened to be self-aware.

One significant thing they had in common was their impressive ability to hide their emotions under a polished, unyielding facade. Throughout the decades she'd witnessed Mika absolutely falling apart one minute, then the next minute he'd be strutting into the Hall of Princes as if he'd never had a bad day in his life. She'd watched him take the harshest physical damage she could imagine, only to get back up and ask for more. If she could have only chosen one of his traits to absorb, it would have been that one. And she'd succeeded. The almost-supernatural ability to just roll with the punches and carry on no matter what was the best thing she could've learned from him. No room for vulnerability when you're conquering the world.

That was why, when he proposed to her, the first words out of her mouth were,

"Do you have a concussion?!"

Spending time together was one thing, but this... as far as she was aware, Mika had precisely two great loves of his life: his throne and everything it stood for, and of course his daughter. No more, no less. It was the last thing she ever expected.

The only times she'd ever seen him appear remotely vulnerable like this were the aforementioned occasions - her broken legs, and years later his broken everything. And of course the handful of times she'd watched him and Kurda Smahlt together and had to wonder... was there something there? There was just something about Mika's eyes every time he and Kurda were in proximity to each other. It was subtle, so subtle she was half-convinced she was imagining it. Because how could she know him this well and not realize there was something THAT big he wasn't telling her? She chalked it up to the fact that they'd raised a child together. Surely that must change the dynamic between two people. Surely Mika knew what he was doing. Because if he didn't, she'd know. Right?


End file.
